132 



Garden and Forest. 



[March 13, li 



rather than beauty is what " takes " at a fiovver show. The 

 thirteen varieties of Pitcher plants exhibited by Messrs. Sie- 

 Ijrecht & Wadley, were likewise an attraction ; but the most 

 beautiful object in the room was a well-grown Bougainvillia 

 spectabilis, trained on a large, fan-shaped screen, which it 

 entirely covered with its masses of soft yet vivid crimson. 



It is unfortunate that there is no good hall in New York 

 for horticultural exhibitions. There is little choice except be- 

 tween the dark and gloomy hall of the Masonic Temple and 

 the Eden Musee, which is well lighted but otherwise unfit 

 for the purpose. It is not nearly large enough, and one is 

 distressed to see beautiful plants crowded in among hideous 

 mural decorations and equally hideous statues, and forming a 

 mere adjunct to a collection of wax- works. The public has cer- 

 tainly shown that it takes a great interest in horticultural 

 shows. Even the Metropolitan Museum has been crowded 

 to suffocation when put to this service, and the smallest col- 

 lection, well selected and attractively arranged, would be sure 

 to be popular. Let us hope that a suitable horticultural hall 

 will be provided when the Madison Square Gardens are re- 

 constructed. But meanwhile the public owes a debt of grati- 

 tude to the enterprising firm of florists who have done so 

 much, under difficulties, to show how the culture of Orchids 

 has advanced in America. 



Notes. 



A novelty in the commercial world is the " Chamber of 

 Commerce for Horticulture," which was recently established 

 in Brussels. Its members will meet twice a month to transact 

 business, after the manner of exchanges in other branches of 

 industry. 



The Tulip was introduced into Europe from Persia, passing 

 by way of Constantinople. Johann Heinrich Hawart, of Augs- 

 burg, whose garden was famous in its day for the many rare 

 exotics it contained, may first have brought it to Germany 

 about the middle of the sixteenth century, and it appeared in 

 England some fifty years later, during the reign of Queen 

 Elizabeth. 



An interesting plantation of fruit trees is about to be de- 

 stroyed in the Jardin des Plantes, at Paris, in order that the 

 space occupied by the menagerie may be extended. This is 

 the collection of Pear trees which Decaisne studied when pre- 

 paring his famous work, " Le Jardin Fruitier dii Museum." 

 It contains about 550 varieties of Pears and forty-five varieties 

 of Plums. Similar collections of Apple and Cherry trees for- 

 merly stood near by, but were destroyed in 1883. 



In addition to the ordinary culinary uses of the Potato — 

 which are much more ninnerous in France than in this 

 country — there are many other services to which this esculent 

 is put. In Germany spirits are made from it, and exported 

 under the name of "Stettin brandy," while a large proportion 

 even of the French cognac, which is fondly supposed to be the 

 juice of the Grape, is in fact spirits of Potato. Eau de Cologne 

 is likewise largely manufactured from Potatoes, while after the 

 farina has been extracted from them, the pulp that remains is 

 manufactured into picture-frames, boxes and toys, and the 

 water expressed in the process is a valuable scouring fluid. 



On the Castle Huntley estate, in England, a remarkable tree 

 was destroyed by a severe gale which occurred on February 

 3d. This was an old Scotch Fir which, says the Gardener's 

 Chronicle, was believed to be over 250 years of age and was 

 " in some respects as remarkable a tree of the kind as could 

 be found in the country. Its girth at the ground was twenty- 

 four feet. At one foot up it girthed sixteen feet, and at five 

 feet, fifteen feet. Above this the trunk swelled out until it had 

 a girth of about thirty feet, and, although its limbs had been 

 sadly broken and shattered by the storms of centuries, it had 

 at the time of its fall a fairly good head. It was broken almost 

 clean across about twelve inches from the ground, and the 

 trunk internally was very much decayed to within an inch or 

 two of the bark. The tree, had it been in sound condition, 

 would, it was estimated, have yielded ten tons of timber. 



The cottage at Fordham, which was once occupied by Edgar 

 Allen Poe, has been offered by its owner, Mr. P. A. Karey, to 

 the Park Department of this city with the request that it may 

 be removed to some site in the Central Park or in one of the 

 new parks above the Harlem River. The Central Park al- 

 ready contains as many buildings as it can well accommodate, 

 and, even for the sake of historical associations, no other 

 should be admitted within its precincts. But it is especially 

 desirable to foster such associations in this country where 

 commercial interests yearly destroy so many records of that 



past which the lengthening perspective of time will make more 

 interesting to our descendants than it seems to be to the average 

 American of to-day. In one of the proposed new parks Poe's 

 Cottage should certainly be placed on some site where the 

 landscape-gardener can make it an agreeable and perhaps a 

 useful feature in his design. 



" A good deal of attention," says the Gardener's Chronicle, 

 " has been given from time to time to the old Japanese lac- 

 quer-ware, some very fine examples of which are contained 

 in the South Kensington Museum, and a very complete set, 

 showing the whole process of its manufacture, is exhibited in 

 the Kew Museum. At the time this collection was got to- 

 gether a full report was prepared to accompany it, in which 

 the mode of extracting the lacquer froni the Rhus-tree, and 

 the entire process of lacquering, were described. Considering 

 the very large quantity of lacquered goods that now come to 

 this country from Japan in the shape of boxes, trays, flower- 

 stands, vases, etc.,. it would seem to be of some importance 

 that the trees which yield the varnish should be preserved, 

 and we now learn from a report from Hakodate that, as it was 

 considered that the Lacquer-tree {Rhus vernicifera) would not 

 succeed in the North, the few trees first planted were not 

 looked after; but last year 157 yoimg trees, averaging from five 

 to eleven inches in girth, were tapped, and the yield was fairly 

 satisfactory. The amount of sap was less than the same num- 

 ber of trees of a similar size would have yielded further south; 

 but the proportion of water and foreign matter was only one- 

 fourth, while the sap of southern trees is said to be generally 

 nearly half water. After refining, the lacquer was also found 

 to give a high polish, and it is, therefore, intended to promote 

 the growth of the tree as much as possible. The young trees 

 planted last year amounted to 150,582. 



Three fields of botanical investigation in northern Mex- 

 ico still invite the zealous and hardy explorer, and promise 

 abundant harvests of new species and of more detailed infor- 

 mation than now exists, of the distribution of the plants of this 

 important phyto-geographical region. These fields are : the 

 high northern Cordilleras and their Sonoran slopes — a region 

 some 200 miles south of Arizona, where a day's walk will 

 take the traveler from lofty summits down into warm valleys, 

 which open out towards the lowlands of Sonora, and in which 

 grow the Palm and the Orange. The second region is that 

 part of north-eastern Mexico occupied by the northern exten- 

 sion of the Sierra Madre, and extending southward from Mon- 

 terey for nearly 150 miles. A few plants were gathered forty 

 or fifty years ago in the extreme northern part of this region 

 by Gregg, Berlandier, Thurber, Parry, and during the past 

 few years by Palmer, Sargent and Pringle ; but its flora is 

 practically unknown, except along its margin, although since 

 the opening of the railroad to Saltillo it lies at the very doors 

 of the United States. A good trail, with numerous branches, 

 now leads from Saltillo through the heart of the mountains 

 southward to San Louis Potosi, along which numerous mission- 

 ary stations have been established. It will not be difficult, 

 therefore, to see a great deal of this region in a comparatively 

 short time, and withovit danger. In these mountains will be 

 found, probably, the southern limit of many North American 

 trees, or new species of trees of North American forms. The 

 third region is on the Pacific side of the continent — a hundred 

 miles to the west and south of Guadalajara. Here in the won- 

 derful "barrancas" through which the rivers of the high 

 plateau rush down towards the sea, and along the entire 

 western slope of the Cordilleras, from Calima to Sonora, will, 

 perhaps, be found the best botanizing the North American 

 continent can now offer to the searcher for noveldes. It is 

 to the examination of these three regions that Mr. C. G. 

 Pringle, who has already done so much to increase the knowl- 

 edge of the flora of north Mexico, expects to pass a large part 

 of the present year. He will start again for Mexico as soon as 

 he has completed the distribution of his plants collected last 

 year in New Leon and Chihuahua. 



Catalogues Received. 



Paul Butz & Son, Newcastle, Pa. ;--Plants. — M. B. Faxon, 21 South 

 Market Street, Boston, Mass. ; — Vegetable and Flower Seeds. — H. W. 

 Hales, Ridgewood, N. J.; — Chrysanthemums. — David Hill, Dundee, 

 Kane County, 111.; — Evergreens. — G. D. Howe, North Hadley, Mass.; 

 — Potatoes. — Michel Plant and Seed Company, 718 Olive Street, St. 

 Louis, Mo.; — Seeds, Bulbs, etc. — Parker & Wood, 49 North Market 

 Street, Boston, Mass. ;— Seeds, etc.— William Parry, Parry, N. J.;— 

 Fruit and Ornamental Trees. — S1EBRECHT& Wadley, 409 Fifth Avenue, 

 New York;— Orchids (Third Annual Orchid Exhibition). — Storrs & 

 Harrison Co., Painesville, Ohio; — Seeds, Plants, etc. — E. & J. C. WIL- 

 LIAMS, Montclair, N. J.; — Fruit and Ornamental Trees, Vines, etc. 



